That means you are missing out in my opinion. I thought it was a cracking episode, both as self contained episode (which gives the casual reader all they need to know to follow it) and as part of the ongoing narrative, setting up an interesting new direction.

Indigo Prime is beautiful but impossible to follow on a weekly basis. There have been a few recent stories like that (The Order springs to mind). They might read wonderfully collected in a trade, but I read them in the prog.

Indigo Prime is beautiful but impossible to follow on a weekly basis. There have been a few recent stories like that (The Order springs to mind). They might read wonderfully collected in a trade, but I read them in the prog.

I shouldn't say this, since I'm Officially Reserving Judgement on post-Smith IP until the current stint wraps up, but a recent re-read showed that everything was very clearly set out, apart from the intentional mysteries.

Just look at him! there he stands,With his nasty hair and hands.See! his nails are never cut;They are grimed as black as soot;And the sloven, I declare,Never once has combed his hair;Anything to me is sweeterThan to see Shock-headed Peter.

Some of his sources and the manipulation of them are simply beyond my means to express. Z

Cover: Can we have an Absalom cover every week please? Even when the strip isn't in the comic?

Dredd: A solid story which just erred on the farcical side with the dog-surfing moment (will 'surf the dog' replace 'jump the shark' as a phrase that marks the moment something turned bad?). The art is OK, PJ Holden gives us great dynamic poses but the wolf looked a bit slapdash this week.

Slaine: WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THOSE SPEECH BUBBLES? Apart from that I got a sort of perverse pleasure from experiencing Pat's histrionic diatribe (the idea of churches as places made of bones is a neat one) but... unless there's a monumental turn-around next week let's face it, Slaine has surfed the dog.

SinDex: Lovely tie-in to the story that kicked off the strip's return earlier this year. Nice to see the strip's serious side. Missing it already!

3riller: To be honest I knew that Absalom was just around the corner so I sort of half skipped this one again, sorry, will catch up next week before the conclusion, promise promise

(Just on the subject of 3rillers generally I will add that I really enjoyed the one earlier this year about the huge demon-possessed robot, so I hope they stick with the format.)

Absalom: Top Thrill again, this has hit a rich vein of form and is just a brilliant read.

Pop quiz! Is this the latest a scene replicated on the cover has cropped up in the comic? It's practically the last frame of the last strip.

Dredd continues to rattle thrillingly along at a fair clip. Will there be any long term fall out from it though? Is it sitting up another stealth epic? I'd like to think so.

And Slaine has converted me back these past weeks. Art is grand and it's a perfectly valid rant against the obscenity of cathedrals being built while people lived in abject poverty. And ties in with theme and plot.

3hriller is actually engaging me too. More so than others in the same stable.

But tied first place are Sin/Dex and Absolom. Both packing in lots of forward motion while remembering things past.

...it's a perfectly valid rant against the obscenity of cathedrals being built while people lived in abject poverty...

Oh, I dunno. They kept some people in work then, they keep some people in work now. I'm sure there were some people struggling financially when Stonehenge was built, and complaining what the fuck do we need a calendar for when we can look out the door and see if the snowdrops are out yet?

I'd love to read a Mill's alt-hist series where he shows us what kind of world he thinks would exist if all his betes noires had never existed.

Is the organisation that built Stonehenge still around and still using their vast wealth and power to control, obstruct education, and cover up abuse? The church is still a very valid target, and drawing parallels between a living mountain who views the earth as a prison under his rule, and giant stone buildings that teach much the same, seems like a clever conceit.

I think its perfectly fine to use Slaine as a platform for anti/pro-pretty much any social or political view. It is, after all, what 2000ad has been doing for a long time. But there is no excuse for not being entertaining and clever about it.

This has just been "Shouty shout stab stab shouty Christianity is bad stab shouty shout" for fifty pages.